The public administration language technology platform Hugo.lv, managed by Culture Information Systems Centre (CISC) since June 2023 has been connected to the European Commission's translation service eTranslation and offers all citizens free access to automatic translation in all the languages of the member states of the European Union, a total of twenty-four. The new service was implemented within the framework of the transnational project NLTP (National Language Technology Platform/National Language Technology Platform) supported by European Union and was administrated by the language technology company Tilde in cooperation with CISC and seven other organisations of different EU member states.
The project was implemented between April 2021 and June 2023, with a number of ambitious aims. In view of the extensive language representation in the European Union, it is essential to offer solutions that would allow every EU citizen to overcome language barriers between different EU nations, as well as to facilitate the exchange of information in different languages; these targets are currently open to the latest language technology solutions. Similarly, it is essential to ensure the development of an inclusive society and access to services, in both the ethnically and socially diverse European cultural area, by offering possibility every citizen to the free access to public services, regardless of the person's mother or spoken language or audially or visually perception of the person . At the same time the project's implementing bodies have identified a challenge that is also crucial for the Latvian nation, namely promoting language equality and digital viability in the global era in Europe, which can be promoted by adapting language technology tools to the specific needs of different languages.
With one click you can translate documents and longer texts safely and confidentially because Hugo.lv does not store user-entered data. The public administration language technology platform Hugo.lv has reached more than half a billion translated words per year and its popularity is growing steadily, as the public sector has recognised the benefits of its effectiveness in day-to-day processes. Hugo.lv includes publicly available translation and voice processing tools and provides the management of virtual assistants of public administration, and all these solutions are freely accessible to everyone.
Given that EC eTranslation machine translation systems are now available for translation on the Hugo.lv platform, translation with eTranslation may take a little longer. For the languages translated with eTranslation machine translation systems in the language menu of the Hugo.lv platform the letter “e” is added.
The National Language Technology Platform (operational number: 2020-EU-IA-0082) is co-financed by the Connecting Europe Facility of the European Union. The project was carried out in cooperation with the University of Tartu, Estonia, Reykjavik University, Iceland, the University of Malta (L-Università ta 'Malta, Malta), Malta Information Technology Agency (Malta), the Maltese Office of the State Advocate, Malta), central State Office for the Development of Digital Society, Croatia, Central State for the Development of Digital Society, Croatia.
